The introduction of 3DRA and CT-like (XperCT, DynaCT or InnovaCT) imaging on a C-arm based X-ray device has positioned 3D rotational XRAY imaging more closely to the interventional environment.
Very often a diagnostic scanning, such as CT and MR will already be available prior to the intervention. Automatic 3D/3D registration of the CT/MR with the rotational data set, which can be performed in a few seconds, allows the fused visualization/interpretation of both data sets.
In FIG. 1, an exemplary diagram of a user interface illustrates a general layout of a user interface. Said user interface comprises different areas for displaying tool buttons 130 and application buttons 140. The user interface further comprises an image area. The image area displays one or more views in a certain arrangement depending on the selected layout configuration. Each view can show a 3D or a 2D image of an object of interest. Usually, the views 110 will show 3D images having different perspectives, wherein the 3D images are build by a combination of orthogonally arranged slices of, for example, CT data. The views 120 will show 2D images of slices used to create one of the 3D images. US 2005/0228250 A1 discloses such a user interface comprising an image area that is divided into a plurality of views for viewing corresponding 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional images of an anatomical region.
Because in the interventional context the clinician wants to focus on the intervention the imaging visualization/manipulation should be interactive, intuitive and simple. Furthermore the spatial relationship between the volume sets should easy be interpreted and segmentation complexity and overhead should be avoided.